The Wonderful Adventures of Nils eBook

The trip extended further along Vettern’s shores;
and after a little they came to Sanna Sanitarium.
Some of the patients had gone out on the veranda to
enjoy the spring air, and in this way they heard the
goose-cackle. “Where are you going?”
asked one of them with such a feeble voice that he
was scarcely heard. “To that land where
there is neither sorrow nor sickness,” answered
the boy. “Take us along with you!”
said the sick ones. “Not this year,”
answered the boy. “Not this year.”

When they had travelled still farther on, they came
to Huskvarna. It lay in a valley. The mountains
around it were steep and beautifully formed.
A river rushed along the heights in long and narrow
falls. Big workshops and factories lay below
the mountain walls; and scattered over the valley-bottom
were the workingmens’ homes, encircled by little
gardens; and in the centre of the valley lay the schoolhouse.
Just as the wild geese came along, a bell rang, and
a crowd of school children marched out in line.
They were so numerous that the whole schoolyard was
filled with them. “Where are you going?
Where are you going?” the children shouted when
they heard the wild geese. “Where there
are neither books nor lessons to be found,”
answered the boy. “Take us along!”
shrieked the children. “Not this year,
but next,” cried the boy. “Not this
year, but next.”

THE BIG BIRD LAKE

JARRO, THE WILD DUCK

On the eastern shore of Vettern lies Mount Omberg;
east of Omberg lies Dagmosse; east of Dagmosse lies
Lake Takern. Around the whole of Takern spreads
the big, even Oestergoeta plain.

Takern is a pretty large lake and in olden times it
must have been still larger. But then the people
thought it covered entirely too much of the fertile
plain, so they attempted to drain the water from it,
that they might sow and reap on the lake-bottom.
But they did not succeed in laying waste the entire
lake—­which had evidently been their intention—­therefore
it still hides a lot of land. Since the draining
the lake has become so shallow that hardly at any point
is it more than a couple of metres deep. The
shores have become marshy and muddy; and out in the
lake, little mud-islets stick up above the water’s
surface.

Now, there is one who loves to stand with his feet
in the water, if he can just keep his body and head
in the air, and that is the reed. And it cannot
find a better place to grow upon, than the long, shallow
Takern shores, and around the little mud-islets.
It thrives so well that it grows taller than a man’s
height, and so thick that it is almost impossible
to push a boat through it. It forms a broad green
enclosure around the whole lake, so that it is only
accessible in a few places where the people have taken
away the reeds.